[insert bad pun using word ‘wrap’ here]

by Erin on August 29, 2005

Sorry this picture is so small — I couldn't get a better one. So go ahead and click through to see this great wool-blend wrap dress at Bluefly. It's $150 or so, but don't you want to look like an agate? I do.

I hesitate, though, because I am fairly klutzy and an overly-enthusiastic gesturer, and wrap dresses? They don't stay so wrapped on me. So my advice is: if you are like me and tempted to wear wrap dresses, always wear pretty underwear and slips. That way the embarrassment factor is not as high. Avoid safety pins: they either come undone and poke you, or they don't hold and then you have a TORN unwrapped dress. Much better to sew in extra snaps if you must.

This one only goes up through a size 10, unfortunately. Which is bad because wrap dresses look great on curvier figures!

Being curvy, I find that hooks and eyes serve the purpose much better for me than snaps, which exist, IMO, only to unsnap. Preferably at the most inconvenient moment possible.And since the wrap skirt part of wrap dresses tend to blow and UNwrap, I have taken to wearing a nice coordinated single-layer bias silk dress underneath. Silk slips aren’t that easy to find, but silk nightgowns are fairly easy; so are simple unlined silk shifts. Instant matching camisole-and-petticoat! *I am not about to wear a single-layer bias-cut silk dress over my curves, thankyouverymuch, but they make great sleepwear and underpinnings.

La BellaDonna, that silk nightgown idea is GENIUS. You could even buy long ones and hem them to the right length. I see them on the clearance rack at Marshall’s and Filene’s all the time …I do prefer snaps just because I think hooks and eyes tend to cause rips as well, and ones that are hard to fix. But snaps are less sturdy!